Education Not Vengeance Key To Crime Prevention

Baying for blood may be very
satisfying but it is unlikely to be effective in the
reduction of crime according to the Governor-General, former
High Court Judge, the Hon Dame Silvia Cartwright.

Dame
Silvia was speaking at a function organised by the New
Zealand National Commission for UNESCO to celebrate the
United Nations Decade for a Culture of Peace and
Non-Violence for the Children of the World
(2001-2010).

“Education is the key to reducing offending
and re-offending. Providing a person at risk of criminal
offending with a means of earning a living, or of effecting
positive life changes is more likely to reduce criminal
offending that a purely punitive policy,” she
said.

“Increasingly research demonstrates that
imprisonment for a wide range of non-violent offences is
counter-productive. Young criminals emerge embittered,
unemployable and with an indifference about re-offending. So
policies that emphasise prevention of offending, while
ensuring that those who are truly a danger to the community
are kept out of it, make sense even if they do assuage the
thirst for vengeance.”

Dame Silvia told the gathering that
violence in a society can be an indicator of injustice and
inequality.

“Those who commit violent acts will often be
poorly educated, lack empathy with those who are vulnerable
and have a severely dysfunctional family life. Often they
will be poor.”

Dame Silvia said while it is important for
New Zealand to do everything it can to promote the goal of
international peace, there is a degree of hypocrisy if we
fail to promote the building of a culture of peace at home.
“The foundation of a peaceful world lies in creating a fair
society where everyone has equal access to opportunity and
to education.”

The Governor-General said it is a
particular source of shame that children, who need and
deserve the opportunity to grown in peace and to receive our
greatest care and protection, so often receive the least.
Our claim of some decades ago that New Zealand is a great
place in which to raise children can no longer be
made.

While the problem has now been acknowledged, Dame
Silvia asked whether enough was being done to prevent
another generation of children becoming victims or
criminals.

She hoped that the naming of this decade for
peace and security for the children of the world would bring
a sharper focus on these issues. As a nation that professes
to love peace, Dame Silvia said New Zealand had a
responsibility to support UN programmes addressing the
problems facing children. “Only then can our concern for the
children of strife torn societies ring true,” she
said.

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